


The Wild Cards

by KD4bra



Category: Persona 3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:20:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26535007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KD4bra/pseuds/KD4bra
Summary: That fateful night, Death's power couldn't be sealed in just one recipient. Luckily for the Shadow exterminator machine, it was a pair of twins who were the only survivors of the "traffic accident". A decade later both of them have learned how to deal with the loss in their own way, but returning to the same city can prove to be too much.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	1. Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> Is it a bad habit that I tend to start my stories with a dialogue?

"Yo, did you see that?"

The silence was the response she needed to continue.

"A blue butterfly just flew by. Like, a really blue one."

"Blue? Akko we're on a train." The boy next to her said.

"Yeah, I know. But-"

"Then how a butterfly is going at train speed?"

"I don't know! I just saw one."

She resigned her sightseeing position, knees on the bench, and sat properly feeling a little defeated.

After a while, she voiced the doubt she knew was unnecessary.

"You believe me... Right?"

The boy eyed her, not moving his head. Only after finding the insecurity in her he answered.

"Yes, I do. It's just bad that couldn't see it, too."

"Well, maybe you would've seen it if you weren't so deep in thought." She said more cheerfully

"I'm not thinking."

"Listening? You don't need to close your eyes in order to listen the music, you know that, right?"

He sighed.

"Yes, I know. But to fully appreciate it, you should close them."

"Well, still, aren't you excited?" She said in a even more joyful tone, invading the personal space of the other one.

Normally, this would have upset the boy, but he was long used to the antics of his sister.

"You mean about the trip, the dorm, or the school?" He forced a faint smile while taking off his headphones to fully hear her.

"All of it! I mean, we haven't been on train before, and that new dorm seems interesting enough, and new school too!"

At that point, his fake smile dropped, the true feelings about the trip, or rather the place they were going to, taking over.

They have been in a train before in fact, being forced to leave the city, to attend different dorms of different schools, and it hadn't been nice.

He didn't know if she chose to ignore that, or just looked at it differently, but either way, she didn't meant to be rude, that was for sure.

After all,

"Yeah..."

she has been through the same. Along him.

Her smile was the reaction he was looking for, and with that, he returned to the music, slowly falling asleep.

His personal alarm woke him up.

"Wake up Mina, we're here!" She said while shaking him.

"I'm up, I'm up." He said chuckling.

The sleeping position he used wasn't the best, but he managed to shake the sore feeling in the first couple of minutes of walking

"Or you buy a clock or you stop sleeping randomly, Mina, seriously." Her sister commented while they leaved the train and stopped in front of the main exit.

"Ah, but the thing is, it isn't random. I do it when you're around to wake me up. You're my clock." He teased, re-checking the map looking for their route to the dorm.

"Smartass... We arrived late, actually." She commented "There was a delay for some reason."

"Really? What time is it then? I think it's almost there." He said looking at the moon.

"Hmm. The station clock says 11:59..." She looked back at the insides of the building "Doesn't your player tell the time? Mine's battery is dead."

"You're my clock, remember?"

He received a not so light punch at the shoulder for that.

"Anyway, let's-"

Their conversation was interrupted by the sudden change in the reality.

As abruptly it can be, the whole world submerged in a dreadful aura. All source of light changed to a variety of green shades, alongside the moon, which was now twice as big, giving the main green light. At last, every body of water gained a new red color. For her, the way the red was scarily similar to that of the blood, was the worst part.

"...Get going."

Even after all those years, he thought, the transformation to what the twins called the Green Hour still unnerved her.

He silently took her hand and began to walk towards the dorm in a fast pace, hoping they wouldn't get lost.

After some minutes, and some screams her sister claimed to hear, they finally arrived to the dorm.

The door, luckily, was unlocked.

The darkness inside the building though, wasn't welcomed in the current situation.

"You're here." A voice in the darkness said.

The 'eek!' from the girl was understandable.

The boy positioned slighly in front of her in reflex. The shadows didn't yet revealed the owner of the voice. Not until it spoke again.

"I was waiting a long time." A kid with blue eyes, black and white pajamas stepped into the light.

"Err sorry, we were-"

"...Who are you?" He interrupted her.

"Please sign here." The younger boy said ignoring the question.

The brother didn't quite like being ignored, but the sister went ahead to read the cheat of paper.

"Don't worry, it only makes you responsible for your own actions." The kid explained seeing the girl reading the contract.

"Responsible? What does it say Minako?" The brother said without giving his somehow defensive position against the stranger.

"It literally says that..." She almost whispered

"What?"

"It says that! 'I choose this fate of mine' or some fancy shit like that."

With this the sister pointed out one of the many shared behaviors of the twins: Swearing while in distress.

"That's it?" He asked.

"I'm telling you that's it!" She said signing the paper.

He approached her carefully, without breaking the stare contest with the pajama boy.

"Are there two spaces or just one for the-?"

"Here" A quill was put in front of his face.

He signed quickly.

"Okay, now answer-"

The sentence was cut since the intended listener was nowhere to be found.

"Where did he go?" He asked to no one in particular.

"He was..." She almost stumbled in her words "He just backed into the shadows and disappeared..." She turned to her brother and almost screamed in a demand "Why am I the only one seeing the weird shit today?!"

"Hello?!"

Another voice stopped both of them in their tracks.

With some luck, a more feminine voice promised less weird, she thought.

"Is someone there?" A thankfully visible girl asked again from the stairs.

On the downside, this brunette was holding a gun defensively, almost looking for something to point it towards.

Unfortunately, she found the two of them after a couple of seconds.

"Who are you?" She asked failing to remain or at least appear calm.

After the pajama boy, that was the last question he wanted to hear.

Again, he shielded her sister before demanding the same, with more determination this time.

"No, who are you?! And drop that gun!"

"Takeba!" Another female voice said.

"Oh geez..." The sister whispered in annoyance behind him.

A new, taller girl with long scarlet red hair went down the stairs.

The only clothes she was wearing besides her black skirt and white shirt was a big red ribbon, matching the color of the hair partially blocking one side of her face.

Her presence seemingly calmed the other girl.

And just as she reached everyone, reality changed again to its original form, giving the needed brightness to the dorm hall.

"Who are you?" She asked nicely.

"Jesus Christ..." He muttered with anger.

"Oh, you must be the new students." She said after studying them over "My apologies, I'm Mitsuru Kirijo. Yukari," She addresed the brunette girl "Meet Minato and Minako Arisato. I believe they are in the same year as you." She finished in a more general tone.

"...Brothers?" She said in a low tone.

"Twins" Both Arisatos corrected.

"But he has blue hair..." Yukari whispered to herself.

"Umm, nice to meet you!" The sister began.

After a moment of silence the brother received a light kick accompanied with a whispered 'Greet her'.

"Ouch! I'm not going to greet her! She pointed a fucking gun at my sister!" The boy failed to maintain a low voice.

"Y-Yeah, nice to meet you too." The brunette replied.

"Rest assured, the gun is for self defense. It's only a replica." The redhead explained in an attempt to salvage the situation.

'That doesn't assure me at all...' The boy thought

"Nice to meet you." He said in a more defensive tone.

She responded with a nod.

The taller girl coughed, giving up the tension.

"Takeba, please show them the dorms. It's pretty late."

At this, it came down on both of them. The other girls were still normal during the Green Hour. What was that supposed to mean?

After more tension build-up and some questions left unanswered or just unasked at all, Minato was left in the 1st floor while Minako's room was in the 2nd.

After some minutes, the sister quietly opened the door and made his way to his bed, just like he was waiting for.

It was tradition at this point, after so many different places where they had to sleep on their own, that Minako slept with her brother for at least the first week.

Naturally, both of them knew this was necessary at some degree, for both of them suffered some anxiety to this new places, to this new place in particular, and even more after the events of that night.

"Is yours comfy?" She referred to the bed.

"More than average. Yours?"

"I think all of them are the same."

"Mm"

They felt the need to talk about ehat just happened, but decided against it seeing how there wasn't enough information to answer at least some of the several questions.

"Do you think school's going to be the same?" She finally asked.

"It shouldn't. But I wouldn't be surprised if it was equally bad."

"I was talking about equally exciting, but okay."

He laid dumbfounded in bed for a second, before laughing softly at how her sister still looked for the brightside in everything.

"With that attitude of yours, any day will be exciting, Minako."

"And with yours it will always be a bad day, right? Minato?"

"I guess..."

"Doesn't matter anyway. I balance them so everyday is normal."

"I'd rather say your positivity pretty much outweights my negativity."

And with that, the cameras continued recording the silence of what left of the night.


	2. School

The knock on the door didn't alert them, at first. It was Minato who noticed the door gently open, the brunette from last night excusing herself into the room, who stopped dead once her gaze fell upon her sister. Yukari didn't expect to see her still there.

"Uh..." Her words were overshadowed by the upbeat singing of Minako.

She considered knocking on Minako's door first, being in the same floor as hers, but then she thought it was a good idea to go and try to fix things with the brother first. They did start with the left foot after all, and the way he preferred to alert her sister rather than deal with Yukari himself, only deepened that gap Minato put between them in the Dark Hour.

The blue haired boy tapped on the shoulder of the redhead, and then harder a second time, not receiving a reaction at first.

"Huh? What is it?" She said taking off one of her headphones.

He limited to turn her around, saying: "Your friend is here."

"Wha- Oh. Hi, uh... good morning!" Minako greeted her.

"H-Hi." She responded carefully. Was he that reluctant to talk to her? "I was... I mean, Mitsuru-senpai asked me to bring you both to school so-" She stopped for a second seeing Minato quickly finishing the bow Minako was helping him with earlier, to then grab what appeared to be his backpack.

"Let's go." He said, pulling his sister out of the room.

Their backpack.

"Huh- he- what? Hey!" Minako said trying both to stop her brother, and to say thanks/sorry to Yukari. "What is it with you?!" She said in a quiet scream, once they were far enough from the other girl.

"Huh?" He feigned ignorance, putting his own pair of headphones on.

"Don't play dumb with me! Why did you ignore her?"

"I didn't. I know where is the school, and we're late."

"Suspicious of you to say that we are late when you're the one who has the phones. Give me mine back." She commanded.

"You left it at the room" He retorted seeing they were already at the lobby, maybe she would give up being this close to the exit.

"Let's go back then." She turned around and left without waiting for and answer.

I should know better than anybody that she doesn't give up... He thought. "Akko, wait."

"Hey! Yukari, do you know what time it is?" Minako asked halfway up the stairs.

"Uhm, yeah. Wait a sec."

Minato caught up to his sister. A mix of angry and annoyed glances were exchanged.

"It's twelve past six."

"So we aren't late for school, right?"

"...No."

With one last glare at her brother, Minako took Yukari's offer (order) to show them the way to school, a reluctant Minato following behind them.

At the train, the brunnete couldn't help looking if ever so briefly at the boy sitting on the opposite side of the train. Save from a hesitant approach at his sister while they were close to the station that was quickly turned down. Minako was looking with disturbed eyes at a distant part of the city, almost as if waiting form something to happen, but when her brother sensed her uneasiness, the red head dismissed it.  
It must run on the family. Yukari thought. Being... weird. She tensed up as if she said that out loud, fearing she made yet another mistake in front of the boy. It isn't bad-weird, I don't mean that I don't like-

"Are you okay?" Big red inquiring orbs filled with worry interrupted her thoughts.

"Huh? Yeah, why do you ask?"

"You seem to be looking at that jerk a lot." Her eyes shot wide open at the sudden realization "Does he bother you?!"

"W-What?!" She frantically glanced again at were he sat, but appeared to not hear, or rather be unable to hear anything through his headphones "No..." She said more calm with a low voice "It's just that he looks like he's mad at me, and then you two fought so I was-" Minako interrupted her again with a snort.

"Pfft! Fought?! Oh, man, you're yet to see me fight with him. Nah, we're cool. He's just acting like that because of yesterday."

''That's what worries me...'' Yukari protested ''He just wanted to protect you but now it's like he thinks I'm a potential threat or something.''

''Mm-mm'' She said shaking her head ''Far from it. I mean, you are a threat to him, but in a social way. He's like that with everyone who comes remotely close to me. I mean...'' A nervous cough followed ''You did point a gun at me, but now he's just jealous.'' The last part was said intentionally louder.

''Jealous? Of wh-'' Interrupted a third time by a light smack on her shoulder, Yukari felt like Minako wasn't going to listen to her worries regarding her brother behavior at this point.

''See?!'' She said pointing at her brother obnoxiously ''He winced at that! He doesn't even have his music on!''

Minato's failed attempt at playing dumb further proved her point.

''Are you sure you guys are cool? I don't wanna cause any trouble... Wait, does that mean he heard-?'' Interrupted yet again for the fourth time in the day.

''Yeah, yeah. Look: Mina, '' She said close to a screaming tone ''come here. Don't be like that. She thinks I'm mad at you.''

Dropping the act, Minato stood up and sat next to his sister.

''...That's because I am the one mad at you.'' He muttered under his breath.

''What was that?'' Minako said in a slightly menacing tone.

''...Nothing.''

''That's what I thought. Now, be a good boy and apologize to Yukari.''

''Eh?'' The girl in question panicked in a pleading whisper.

''Why?'' Minato retorted.

''Because you've been a jerk to her.''

''How?''

''You know how, you idiot! Now go on and say sorry.'' She scolded him.

''Whatever.'' He finally gave up.

Straightening in his seat he locked his gaze with Yukari's. The intention was to regard the situation with due seriousness, something Minako acknowledged, but Yukari only felt more intimidated than before.

''I'm sorry for ignoring you this morning.'' He said a little reluctant.

''T-That's okay... Oh, and I'm sorry for-!'' Fifth.

''Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?'' The red head said to her brother. ''So, what were you telling me before, Yukari?''

''Huh?'' She took a while to remember what was happening right after entering the train ''Oh, yeah. The sea, look.'' Yukari pointed at the windows.

While the dreamlike view wasn't so exciting now to Yukari after the morning stress, neither something that could console Minato after that display of vulnerability, at least the hand of her sister holding his the rest of the ride as a reward was enough to bring the ladder to his normal mood.  
Neutral-bad mood, that is.

''So, any questions?''

''Yes! Wh-''  
''No.'' The twins said at the same time.

''Yes, in which class are you?'' Minako said after a quick glare.

''Uhm, I don't know. Nobody knows, actually. The board's over there, so you can check if you want.''

''Where.'' Minato's words where more of a statement than a question.

''Over there.'' The brunette pointed at the right wall of the hall. ''I'm going to check who my homeroom teacher is. You should-'' Sixth. Did it count if it was the other twin?

''Alright, '' He said after seeing the board ''let's go.''

''Mina-Wait. Mina! You interrupted her!'' Minako half scolded, half whined.

''You aren't one to talk either.'' Yukari said out loud.

''What?''

''Nothing! I'll leave you guys. Feel free to ask me anything if you have any doubts.''

The twins saw Yukari zoom off until she was no longer in sight.

''Wasn't she going to check the board?'' Minako asked to herself.

''You scared her.'' The boy said before heading towards the board.

''What?! Did not!'' Her sister cried from behind ''If someone is bound to scare her that's you!'' She finished once she reached his side.

''Yeah, yeah...'' A couple of seconds passed between checking every column, searching for either of their names, but Minato gave up quickly ''Bummer. I don't find our names, guess we can not attend to school then.''

Her sister grabbed him by the shirt's collar in a comedic fashion in his attempt to flee. A suitable sigh followed.

''They're on a sticky note, at the bottom right. ...We're with that girl.''

''Yay!'' She mildly celebrated. ''Then let's go meet the teacher.''

Oh. Minato thought. She forgot about that. Finally. I was worried I was going to put up with-

''Hey! But first we have to meet with our classmates!''

Great.

''Seriously, what took you so long? You were supposed to come here before the opening, not after.'' Their homeroom teacher said.

''I beg your pardon ma'am, my sister was caught up desperately trying to make friends.'' Minato said, gaining the strongest kick Minako could muster without getting spotted.

The teacher was taken back a little by the overly formal speech, but addressed the sister in question nonetheless:

''While I appreciate your enthusiasm, you can leave that to the class- I mean, to the recess. Now we have to stop the first hour because of you two...'' She trailed off looking between her papers.

''I'm sorry miss Toriumi. It won't happen again.'' The girl said with a little bow.

''...Now here you are.'' She said after a whille ''Arisato Minako.''

When her gaze was placed upon the boy, he redirected her pointing at her sister.

''Okay. And... Arisato Minato. Brothers?"

''Twins.'' They said at the same time.

''Haha. Now, your names are quite easy to confuse, don't you think?"

They both ignored the question.

''Well then, let's head over to the classroom and-''

''Miss! Teacher. Madam. Is it necessary to introduce ourselves?'' Minako interrupted.

''No... It is not. Why's that? Would you rather not?''

The girl gave her a vigorous nod.

''Alright. Then go on before they notice I left the class unsupervised.''

After a day with no interesting classes whatsoever (it was the first day after all), the twins reacted inversely proportional to the bell. Minako jumped out of her seat, while Minato sank even further.  
He was almost able to escape reality, until a foreign hand found support in his shoulder.

'''Sup dude. How you doin'?''

The voice sounded too nonchalant for Minato to care, so he limited himself to brush off the hand, and resume his attempts to sleep.

''Eh!- Wow... Don't have so harsh... Oh, hello there! My name's-"

Minato didn't know if the other boy managed to finish presenting himself to his sister, for her hand had crashed with great force onto his skull.

"Ow! What was that for?!''

''Stop being a jerk goddammit! He came all the way here, waited for almost everyone to leave class, just so your grumpy ass would turn him down without even giving him a single word!''

Now Minato was fully awake. He turned to see behind him, and the boy in question presented a mix between embarrassment since his actions had been carefully exposed, and fear for the fuming girl in front of him.  
In a more normal note, her face matched his voice: No thoughts, head empty.

''So now what you're gonna do is apologize to him-!''

''Again?''

''APOLOGIZE! And introduce yourself! Or I swear in my life, Minato, the headache that punch is gonna left on you is going to be far worse.''

Minato quickly glanced behind his sister, and found an equally scared face on Yukari.  
Wouldn't be surprising if a few students came back to see what's happening. He thought. Better get this over with.

He raised, faced the baseball guy and deeply bowed.

''Sorry for my recent behavior. I was trying to sleep and didn't regarded your presence with the due respect any stranger deserves-''

''Heh- Uh, dude, you don't have to-''

''Please accept my deepest apologies and consider not touch-'' Another hit at the head, though this one was less powerful ''Accept my apologies, please.'' He begged

''Uh, yeah, sure. Okay.'' The boy blurted out. HE sounded like he noticed the pleading tone in Minato's monologue, and desperately wanted to take him, and himself, out of that situation.

''Thank you.'' MInato said raising up. Once the boys eyes followed what he assumed was his sister out of sight he tried to ask: ''Is she gone?''

''She's... Still looking in this direction.''

''Fair enough. Would you mind '' and he raised his voice for the next part ''accompanying me for some food?''

The boy's eyes flickered between the twins, and then promptly accepted.  
Minato wordlessly guided them out of the classroom, even though he didn't even remember how to exit the school.

''So... You guys cool, right? Right..." Yukari said sarcastically after both boys left the class.

''Is just-'' The red head suppressed a grunt and took a deep breath before continuing ''he gets like that from time to time, and if I don't correct him, it becomes a habit.''

''Looks to me like it's already a habit...'' Minako chuckled at that, never taking her sight off the classroom door.

''Yeah, I'm bad at lecturing him.''

''But it seems like he respects you... Or fears you, already. The way he talked, too, when did he learn that?''

''I grabbed the books we had on proper manners and took off where she left off.''

Yukari knew by firsthand, that that particular unspecified ''she'' was something better left unasked, so she waited the moment to pass.  
Finally, after almost a minute, Minako turned and asked:

''Do you want to grab something yo eat?''

''So you don't even know where's the exit.''

''Nope.'' Minato said staring at the hallway they just came from ''I only wanted to leave that room.''

''Yeah, gotcha... That was your sister?''

''Yup.'' He stretched his hand, gaze still locked on the hallway "Minato Arisato''

''Oh, that's right. I haven't got your name yet, haha.'' He took his hand and shook it firmly ''Junpei Iori. Must have it hard, huh?''

''What?'' He finally turned his head, afraid Junpei deduced what was on his mind.

''Your sister, I mean.''

''Ah, that. Nah, I'd be dead without her. You know a good place to eat?''

''Oh man I thought it was part of the act. No worries, I know just the place!''

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel really nervous about this one, even tho it was a fun to write. It is mostly memes and slice of life comedy, opposed to the more suspense oriented first chapter, but I hope I captured that same vibe the random joke dialogues/events in the game have.
> 
> Dude, try to make an AU that changes major plot points maintain the timeline at the same time. Already have: You essentially can't. So, big shocker, but this is now an AU, but like, a big AU with major changes that will come into play later on, and hopefully changes you will like.
> 
> This chapter had a little bit too much exposition IMO but it turned out a'right I think.  
> Feel free to leave a review! Or any question you have about the plot! Even tho I will try to make just enough exposition to explain the characters and the world, and the things that have changed, it's impossible to list them all without converting this novel into a script, so if something strikes you fancy, ask~! I love worldbuilding and if it isn't going to be somehow answered in later chapter, I'll happily answer them!

**Author's Note:**

> I looked for a satisfying portrait of my Arisato Twins headcanon. Truth is, my ships and personality of the two blank MCs are very specific so I ultimately decided to write my own fic, one that hopefully reflects that vision. I don't feel like spoiling the ships yet, but the story will very probably reach The Answer, that I can tell.


End file.
